Campaign for Female Education launched its programme at Mfantseman

Saltpond (C/R), Aug. 5, GNA - A Non-Governmental organization (NGO) called Camfed (Campaign for Female Education), has launched its programme i= n the Mfantseman Municipality. The NGO seeks to promote education of the girl-child in three district= s of the Central Region namely, Gomoa West, Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese and Mfantseman. Speaking at the launch of the programme, Mrs Olga Teye-Topey, Educatio= n Programme Manager of the NGO, said Camfed ran a holistic programme, which ensured that every child, especially the girl-child and the vulnerable, had access to quality education.

She said a bursary programme, which entailed paying school fees, supplying uniforms, foot wears and stationary to needy girls, ensured that a girl was not denied the right to education because of poverty. Mrs Teye-Topey noted that whilst there could be non-economic factors that hindered a girl's education, poverty was the most dominant factor. "Poverty turns young girls into the street, forces them to engage in undesirable activities and even makes them fall victims to unwanted pregnancy," she noted. She said the aim of their bursary programme was to provide for girls whose parents genuinely could not afford to take them to school. "Selection of girls onto our bursary programme is therefore based purely on need but not on the brilliance of the girl." Mrs Teye-Topey said Camfed in partnership with Master Card Foundation, a charity organization in Canada and stakeholders in the municipalities would ensure that every child was educated, protected, respected and valued= .. "When you educate a girl, everything changes and together, we can ma= ke the difference," she said.

Inaugurating a nine-member committee to oversee the running of the programme in the Municipality, Miss Rachel Adjoa Amofa, Deputy Municipal Coordinating Director, said the days when girls were seen as household properties rather than national properties were gone. Miss Amofa noted that development of every nation depended on the leve= l of education the boy and the girl attained and assured that the programme would be supervised and monitored to serve its purpose. Mr Simeon Obotan Larbi, Municipal Director of Education, expressed concern about the sufferings of women in the country and urged the girl-child to take education seriously to reverse the trend. The Director said government had put in place a lot of interventions t= o ensure education for all and appealed to parents to take advantage of them to send their children to school.

Nana Baa VII, Chief of Saltpond Lower Town and Nyinifahen of Nkusukum Traditional Area, who chaired the function, called for effective parental control on children.